


She's Our Friend and She's Crazy

by stranger_thanfiction



Series: Stranger Things 30 Day Challenge [22]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, One Shot, Post-Season/Series 03, Shared Trauma, dustin and el and mike is a friendship that deserves more explanation, dustin's dad also died, hop's still mia, my bbs in s1, this was supposed to be funny whoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 02:00:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20184388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stranger_thanfiction/pseuds/stranger_thanfiction
Summary: “It’s romantic.”It’s ridiculous!”“It’s bullshit, that’s what that is,” Dustin grumbles, grabbing the deconstructed parts of Cerebro and turning to keep walking up the hill.He really wanted El and Mike to meet Suzie, but whatever. Their loss.





	She's Our Friend and She's Crazy

**Author's Note:**

> I'm behind, and this was supposed to be funny! Whoops on both accounts! Yesterday's prompt was funniest friendship, and that is absolutely El and Dustin and Mike (y'all, I wrote too much about Scoops Troop). I have been starved for them all since S1, but I basically took their little hug in The Bite and ran with it.   
As always, comments and kudos are better writing fuel than coffee, and you can always come yell at my tumblr @modernfeminismtalking. Enjoy!

Dustin loves his friends, but they can be such assholes sometimes. 

Camp Knowhere was the first time he was separated from his friends since second grade, since before the Upside Down, and a small part of him was scared that something happened when he was missing.

Hawkins never fully sleeps. 

The Party has spent the last four months slowly integrating El into their group and adventures under the watchful eye of Hopper, so it’s a surprise when Dustin returns home to his two best friends sneaking off. 

“It’s romantic.”

It’s ridiculous!”

“It’s bullshit, that’s what that is,” Dustin grumbles, grabbing the deconstructed parts of Cerebro and turning to keep walking up the hill. 

He really wanted El and Mike to meet Suzie, but whatever. Their loss.

Dustin’s happy to see Will, though, and even Lucas and Max. Their relationship is less painful and more annoying due to the bickering, but he's unsurprised. 

He loves Suzie: how couldn’t he? She’s perfect, hotter than Phoebe Cates, and smarter than anyone he’s ever met. 

Dustin’s just kind of sick of the Party growing apart.

The four remaining Party members get the radio hooked up, and Dustin’s practically vibrating when she turns on.

He and Suzie spent their last four days together pouring over the plans for this, and he can’t wait for her to hear that it works. 

Of course, it doesn’t.

He knows that the other three don’t think she’s real, but Dustin’s confident she’s just out of range.

Lucas and Max eventually leave, most likely to go make out, and Will does too before the light completely fades. The last thing they want to happen is to scare his mom, or for Will to go missing again.

Like he said, Hawkins is always alive. 

“I’m sorry I’ve got to go,” Will bites his lip, looking down at their strewn bikes, “but I’m really happy you’re home!”

The cleric smiles brightly at his friend before heading down the hill by himself.

Dustin’s hit with a pang of guilt, because he forgot that going to camp meant leaving Will with all the lovebirds, and mentally made a note to make it up to him later.

Right now, he needed to talk to Suzie-poo.

Dustin is happy for his friends.

No, really, he is. 

The Party has been officially been incident free for six months (or so the board in Mike’s basement says) and he can’t help but feel like this is a good sign.

The four months before school ended were hectic. All six party members were busy-El with learning more about the world from the comfort of Hopper’s cabin, and the other five with finishing middle school alive.

Despite this, the whole gang decided to try and include El. They were all together for hours during the week, so the group ended up sitting the chief down and explaining that they needed El on the weekends.

The gruff man stared at the five pre-teens giving him a fully-fledged presentation about why his daughter should be allowed outside on the weekends before interjecting. 

It went about as well as expected. 

For the second attempt, they voted on sending Dustin. 

He drew the short straw on this one, but he knew that Hopper liked his friendship with El the most. Sending in any of the others, especially Mike, would end up leaving El a recluse for the summer of ‘85, and that wasn’t happening on his watch.

Dustin’s also incredibly good at wearing down adults.

He ended up sitting in front of the chief for over an hour, not stopping to take a breath as he relentlessly informed Hopper on what sequestering her does to her mental, social, physical, and emotional health. 

Said daughter in question was sitting on the loveseat behind her friend silently, but they both knew she agreed with everything Dustin was saying, even though she has no idea what the word “ramifications” means. 

“And, respectfully, sir, being around us in an unstructured environment will only enrich her vocabulary and-”

“I have conditions,” Hop suddenly shouted over him loudly, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as if fighting off a headache. 

Dustin smiled at him, and looked back to smile back at El.

Victory. 

Dustin was right, of course, but he didn’t expect the group to be feeling the effects.

El has been taking leaps and bounds in her learning, and he hasn’t seen Mike or Lucas this happy in a while. 

He’s never been someone to hold grudges, it’s too out of character, so he’s genuinely happy to see Lucas and Max together; they really complete each other, he thinks, calling back Lucas spitting back into his canteen so Max could have some water.

Ah, young love. 

So yeah, Dustin is happy for his friends, even though they’re being dicks and not answering his code red. 

The only one he’s not mad at is Will, because he can never be mad at him. Dustin’s always seen Will as the one they all had to protect, even before the Upside Down, so he’s assuming he just slept in late.

The others?

Dustin knows that Max and Lucas sneak around Hawkins early in the morning so they can avoid Billy, so their walkies are shut off. 

He also knows for a fact that Mike goes to see El every morning at exactly nine, so they’re both most likely making out and have shut their walkies off. 

After twenty minutes, he gives up on the walkies and asks his mom to take him to the mall. 

At least Steve will probably be happy to see him. 

Dustin’s had the weirdest fucking twenty-four hours of his life, and all he really wants to do is shower and sleep, but the Russians are reopening the gate, so he prays that his dumbass best friends answer the freaking call. 

It takes a while, but thank god Mike picks up.

He can barely get everything out before his walkie dies of a low battery, and of course he doesn’t have enough on his person to keep talking.

Fuck.

Then Steve and Robin go missing. 

Double fuck.

Dustin and Erica find them in the men’s bathroom, laughing their asses off at nothing, and he can’t help but miss The Party, even though he likes these guys too. Ya know, when they’re not high as a kite. 

They try to leave with the exiting crowd, but they’ve got company, and they all end up hiding in the food court. 

Dustin’s sure they’re going to die, surer than the time that Troy held a knife to his face, surer than the time they were attacked by the demogorgon or the demodogs, and then they don’t. 

When he hears the sound of a car alarm and a crunching noise, there’s no one else it could be.

He could nearly cry with relief when he sees El standing there, arm outstretched and blood pouring out of her nose. 

The whole party is there, plus Jonathan and Nancy, and he’s never been happier to see them.

They came, he thinks, before running over to his friends. 

He hugs Mike and El first because wow, he missed his best friends when he was trapped in the Russian bunker. 

The group reunites and regroups, with Robin just kind of watching them tackle this disaster like it’s a normal Tuesday. 

(Dustin makes a mental note to erase the board in Mike’s basement, if they survive this one.)

He notices that El’s unnaturally pale, and that there’s a lot more blood than he saw initially, too much for such a small person. 

Mike’s by her side, as always, and he’s there when she collapses. 

Dustin runs to his side, and holds her older shoulder as they let her down gently. 

El’s on the floor because the monster--of course there’s another monster in Hawkins--decided to bite her, and now it’s inside her. 

Dustin would really like to for Hawkins to stop being so batshit, but also he’d like the group to stop relying on El’s powers so much.

He loves her, but her ability to put everyone else before herself is going to kill her. 

It almost does, if the screams she’s letting out from pulling the thing out of her leg are any indication. 

El gets it out right in time for Hopper to show up, and wow, is Mike fucked. 

The rest of the group broke all of his rules in like, less than twenty-four hours, which has to be some kind of record. 

Everyone’s really here now, and it’s time to end this. 

It’s over, something that Dustin really can’t comprehend, and he’s sick of going to funerals. 

Some of the people he knew, most he didn’t, but the worst one was easily Chief Hopper’s. 

Joyce, as graceful as ever, allowed the group to sit with El, Mike flanking one side and Max the other, and she held both their hands as she cried. 

Dustin had vivid flashbacks to his own father’s funeral, and admittedly shed a tear when Joyce talked about the man’s bravery and friendship. 

Sure, the chief wasn’t the warmest man in the world, but he had adopted their group and repeatedly kept them all safe, and Dustin wasn’t really ready to lose another father figure again. 

Their ragtag group heads back to Will’s house after, splitting the carpool between Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve’s cars, and there’s nothing else any of them can say that makes this easier for anyone. 

No one is in a joking mood. They saved the world, but at what cost?

El hasn’t been alone since last Thursday, but Dustin takes the small gap when Max is talking to Lucas and Mike is in the bathroom to talk to her.

“Hey El,” he starts, and the small girl looks up at him, her brown eyes red and face splotched with tears.

“Can I sit?”

She nods softly, and he sits beside her, shifting his empty glass between his hands. 

They don’t speak for a while, settled in an uncomfortable silence until he breaks it.

“We haven’t talked, like you and me, for a while, but I just need you to know that I understand how much this sucks right now.”

She looks over at him, surprised.

“You do?”

He nods.

“Yeah, uh, my dad, he died, too, before we moved to Hawkins.”

El’s eyes soften and begin to fill with tears again.

“Dustin, I’m sorry,” she says.

He places a gentle hand on her shoulder and gives her a soft smile.

“He’s been gone for a while now. He had cancer, so my mom and I were able to prepare a little more than you did, but it still hurt,” Dustin takes a deep breath, eyes beginning to water as he thinks about his dad.

Not now. 

El can feel his discomfort, because she places her hand over his on her shoulder. 

“Does..does it still, hurt?” she asks hesistantly. 

Dustin wants to lie, he wants to tell her that time heals everything, but he can’t lie about this one. It’s been years, but both he and his mom can still feel the blow of losing his dad. It’s why they moved to Hawkins, it’s why Mews’ replacement is named Tews, it’s why his mom was thrilled when Steve started coming around. 

“Yeah, sometimes,” he answers honestly, and watches her face fall.

“It does get easier, though, with time. The pain in your chest lightens up, gradually, and before you know it..” he trails off, unsure of where he wants to go, but she gets it.

El gives weak smile and pulls him into a hug.

“Thank you.”

He hugs her back tightly.

“I’m always here, if you need to talk to someone, you know, that understands what you’re going through,” he says, and she nods.

“I can try for you, too.”

And damn, he really loves El, and she doesn’t deserve anything that’s happened to her. He swears to be there for his friend more, and maybe start the party on some sort of cardio program.

Dustin has no doubt now that it’s only a matter of time before Hawkins throws something else at them. 

Mike’s back, and looking at them weird, so Dustin says he’ll talk to them later before heading over to Will to catch up. 

They’re talking about D&D while watching the rest of the party try and make El laugh with stories of Lucas being a dumbass, and Dustin’s chest warms.

Maybe his friends are assholes, but they’re also the best group of friends he’ll ever have. 


End file.
